A packed audience at the Royal Society in London was given sight of the new technologies being developed at the UK’s four Quantum Technologies Hubs last week at the first Quantum Technology Showcase.

Three hundred delegates from industry, business and government heard how the £270 million UK National Quantum Technologies Programme (UKNQTP) was drawing the country’s research base together with industry, research funding bodies and other government agencies to accelerate the transition of new technologies from the laboratory to industry.

Research teams from the universities and companies involved in the Hubs demonstrated how the unique properties of the quantum realm are being used to advance technologies in measurement, security, computing, imaging and sensing.

Projects to develop superfast cameras that can see round corners, ultra-sensitive gravity sensors that can find oil and gas reservoirs and unbreakable encryption systems that can detect eavesdropping of optical fibres were just some of the exhibits on show.

Professor Philip Nelson, Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which funds the Hubs and other parts of the programme said; “This showcase is a really exciting event and there is clearly a huge amount of interest in what the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme can deliver. The fact that there is a constant conversation and circulation of knowledge between the partners about the research and its potential uses makes this national programme a first. I am confident that it will keep the UK in the vanguard of many research areas and bring about world changing technologies.”

The event was organised to mark the first anniversary of the UK National Quantum Technology Hubs which were set up in November 2014. The Hubs have been formed by a consortium of 17 universities led by the universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Oxford and York, funded by EPSRC.

Professor David Delpy, Chair of the UKNQTP said: “The vision for the programme is a coherent community that gives the UK a world-leading position in these emerging multi-million pound markets. The five year programme will keep us at the leading edge and provide an easy entry point for companies interested in exploiting the potential of quantum technologies.”

• Listen to Professor Miles Padgett explaining the Quantum Technology Programme on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06p594w [at 2:51]